Book review: Enhancing patient care: a practical guide to improving quality and safety in hospitals

Abstract

WHAT AN INTERESTING, topical and refreshing text on patient safety and quality! As the name of the book implies, this is a practical text that takes the reader systematically through the concepts, practices and pitfalls of implementing a hospitalbased patient safety and quality program. The pleasing aspect of this book is that is written from the perspective of implementing a safety and quality program in an Australian health service. The authors are hands-on clinicians who have written this book like a personal quality journey. This approach has been very effective in presenting the reader with practical applications, approaches and challenges in developing programs that enhance patient care. This offering fills an important gap in the market. There are many texts that approach quality, safety and risk management from a theoretical or quantitative perspective. This book takes the available research and theory and illustrates how a health service can harness the available literature to develop a working guide to improving patient services. The chapter that provided very straightforward explanations of a range of change, motivation and social interaction theories particularly impressed me. One of the real revelations was the chapter that covered eighteen practical steps for implementing a clinical risk management program in a health service. This chapter goes to the heart of why this text is particularly useful. I found the book extremely useful as it provides a great framework for those wanting to start or enhance their hospital-based quality improvement and safety program. The book is well set out, easy to read and provides a wealth of examples of forms, audits and other quality tools ? and at $49.95, this local text is also excellent value for money.